Criminal Justice

Overview

What does it take to create a just society?

As a criminal justice major you’ll examine the issues of crime and punishment as well as the processes and agencies involved in addressing crime and practices of justice. Continually changing to meet the demands of the discipline and the challenges of crime in a modern society, this professional major provides an intensive knowledge of the causes of delinquent and criminal behaviors and the problems of the juvenile and criminal justice systems.
The criminal justice program has its roots in the tradition and mission of the Christian Brothers. It supports the University’s mission to pursue the free search for truth by teaching students the basic skills, knowledge, and values they will need for a life of human dignity. Students will witness the human impacts of crime policy, particularly ethical issues, but also the differential impacts by race/ethnicity, gender, and social class.

Courses in this Major

Students enjoy a wide range of interesting and unique courses including:

CRJ 261: Criminology

This is an exploration of major theories of deviance as they apply to behavior viewed as criminal or delinquent. Draws on a variety of academic perspectives to help understand and explain varied manifestations of crime and criminal behavior. Focus is on classical, positivist, and critical approaches, as well as the social policy implications of various theoretical frames of reference.

CRJ 324: Policing: Theory and Dynamics

This course offers an analysis of police roles, including evolution, public perceptions, administration, culture, and police deviance. Social and political contexts are emphasized through incorporation of social science research related to policing and organizations. Encourages integration of concepts of police on a micro level (the police occupation) with a macro level (the context in which social action occurs), facilitating understanding of the complex relationships between a society and its police.

CRJ 340: Crimes of the Powerful

This course offers a study of social harms perpetrated by persons of power and influence. Theoretical approaches for understanding elite deviance and legal issues in definition, investigation, prosecution, and sentencing will be considered. Specific crimes of the powerful will be explored, including through case studies.

CRJ 387: Gender, Crime, and Justice

This course is a study of the gendered nature of criminal justice theory, policy, and practice. Among the major themes are: gender differences in criminal behavior, criminal victimization, and criminal processing. Includes consideration of the contributions of feminist criminologies.

CRJ 495: Senior Seminar: Ethical Issues in Criminal Justice

This course is an exploration of the interaction between ethics and criminal justice practice, including application of ethical theory to criminal justice issues. Focus is primarily on normative ethics (both deontological and teleological views), including major theorists. The course helps to integrate knowledge gained from previous courses through the overarching theme of the pursuit of justice as an ethical ideal.

“We need to keep making our streets safer and our criminal justice system fairer – our homeland more secure, our world more peaceful and sustainable for the next generation.”

— Barack Obama

Blaze Your Own Path

Career Paths

A bachelor’s degree in criminal justice will lay the foundation of your career. Whether you choose to venture into anything from law enforcement to policy, you’ll be trained in the theoretical insights and practical applications of aspects of the criminal justice system. We take a multi-disciplinary approach with an emphasis on social justice and social service to prepare you to fully examine the world ahead. You’ll be ready to start a career as a:

Police Officer

Federal Agent (FBI, Secret Service, ICE, Homeland Security).

Lawyer

State Trooper

Analyst

Correctional Officer

Immigration Inspector

Securities Compliance Examiner

Victim Services Advocate

and much more

Career Paths

Internships

Professional internships serve a number of important functions.

Linking Theory with Practice

La Salle’s mission is to foster “creative teaching that blends theory with practice, producing an educational experience with practical applications.” The link between the theories, best practices learned in class, and the practical application of that knowledge in a professional setting is a quintessential Lasallian tradition. Your internship allows you to take the academic ideas and theories you have learned in class and apply that knowledge in a real-world setting where you will be mentored by experienced professionals in criminal justice, legal, government, advocacy, and non-profit settings.

Building Professional Networks, Getting a Job and the Resume

Today it’s both what and who you know. Several of our students have obtained employment at the organizations where they interned. While the jump from one’s internship experience to permanent employment at the internship site is a possibility, the social networks developed through the internship experience are permanent, far-reaching, and can aid in future employment possibilities. Internships provide students with occupational and social networks that are invaluable in a competitive labor market.

Building the Resume

Internships provide students with a way to distinguish themselves on their resumes from other job applicants adding an experiential component to their list of academic achievements.

Testing the Waters

Internships provide students with the chance to determine if their career choice is right for them. Part of the intellectually and experiential journey of an internship is trying your hand at different career possibilities. It may be the case your internship confirms what job is right for you or you may come to realize that your career interests lie elsewhere. Our students have interned at places such as:

ATF (Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives)

FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation)

ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

U.S. Secret Service

Philadelphia Adult Probation and Parole

New York City Council/Public Technology

New Leash on Life

Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office

Philadelphia Police

District Attorney’s Office

Delaware Valley Intelligence Center

Internships

Graduate School

As a criminal justice student at La Salle you’ll learn highly marketable interpersonal and communication skills which are key to becoming an outstanding member of society, a dedicated professional, and an exceptional graduate student. Our curriculum will provide the skills to conduct qualitative and quantitative research, think critically, solve problems, and draw conclusions, all of which is necessary for success in a graduate program. Our students have found success at universities such as:

Widener Law School

Drexel Law School

Temple Law School

University of Delaware

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Graduate School

I am an Explorer

Charles Gallagher, Ph.D.

Charles A. Gallagher is professor and chair of the Sociology and Criminal Justice Department at La Salle University. His research focuses on social inequality, race relations, and immigration and has published over 50 articles, reviews, and books on these topics. As a nationally recognized expert on race, immigration, and social inequality, Gallagher has given over […]

Charles Gallagher, Ph.D.

Charles A. Gallagher is professor and chair of the Sociology and Criminal Justice Department at La Salle University. His research focuses on social inequality, race relations, and immigration and has published over 50 articles, reviews, and books on these topics. As a nationally recognized expert on race, immigration, and social inequality, Gallagher has given over 60 talks on these topics around the country, serves as an expert witness on civil rights cases, and is a frequent media source on these issues, appearing in the press, television and radio interviews over 100 times. He is currently writing a book on how institutions create self-reinforcing accounts of colorblind egalitarianism that serve to maintain, normalize, and reproduce racial inequality. In 2016, he was selected to serve as a Fulbright Scholar in the UK where he studied residents’ views on immigration. He also serves as Senior Fellow at Yale University’s Urban Ethnography Project.

Beyond the Classroom

Inside Out

At La Salle we offer a number of “Inside-Out” academic courses, which are taught inside Philadelphia prisons. These courses are designed to bring college students and incarcerated men and women together to examine fundamental issues of social justice. Half of the students are La Salle students (“outside” students) and half are incarcerated students (“inside” students). Recent Inside-Out courses have centered on questions such as: How do we account for America’s exceptionally high incarceration rate? Why certain behaviors are categorized as crimes and other behaviors are are not? What are prisons for? Why do people commit crime? How does incarceration impact individuals? What are the current goals of our criminal justice system and what should be the goals? What are some of the myths and realities of prison life? Not only do the courses allow students to gain a deeper understanding of the impacts of the criminal justice system, it allows them to meet people whose lives have been impacted by the very theories, laws, and ideas they gather to discuss.

Service Learning

Our University’s culture is rooted in the Christian Brothers’ tradition of faith, service, and community. The scope and innovation of La Salle students is evident in the contribution of more than 60,000 hours of community service on an annual basis. At sites such as Habitat for Humanity projects, homeless shelters, hospices, daycare centers, food banks, schools, and churches, students have applied their talents, skills, and energies to meeting the needs of others.

Many students join established outreach organizations on campus, and there are also opportunities to perform community service through coursework. The criminal justice program has taken service immersion trips to places such as Honduras, The Dominican Republic, and South America. But within the reaches of our own city limits, criminal justice majors have done service to the local Philadelphia community. Paying special attention to the social typography of the neighborhoods, students receive a first-hand look at how the criminal justice system affects the local community and what it means to be just.

Clubs

Criminal Justice Association

Criminal justice majors are automatically eligible for membership in the student Criminal Justice Association, which sponsors campus activities and schedules guest speakers and forums of interest to the majors.

Alpha Phi Sigma National Criminal Justice Honor Society

Those majors who maintain a 3.0 cumulative GPA and a 3.2 GPA in the criminal justice program are also eligible to apply for membership in Alpha Phi Sigma, the nationally recognized criminal justice honor society. Our local Alpha Iota Chapter has been on campus since 1980.

92% of graduates are employed, volunteering full-time through service programs or pursuing additional education full time within one year of graduation.

Ranked 34th in the North Region on U.S. News & World Report’s 2018 list of Best Colleges.

Ranked 5th on the Money magazine’s list “The 50 Colleges That Add the Most Value”.